By BERZA SIMSEK and SUZAN FRASER
Associated Press, May 13, 2014
SOMA, Turkey (AP) — Turkey’s energy minister has raised the death toll from an explosion and fire at a coal mine in western Turkey to 166. Some 200 people are still believed trapped inside the mine.
Energy Minister Taner Yildiz said early Wednesday that 787 people were working inside at the time of the accident in the coal mine in Soma, some 250 kilometers (155 miles) south of Istanbul.
He says 80 mine workers were injured and at least four of them are in serious condition.
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Fraser reported from Ankara, Turkey.
Caption: Medics place an injured miner into an ambulance after an explosion and fire at a coal mine in Soma, in western Turkey, Tuesday, May 13, 2014. An explosion and fire at a coal mine in western Turkey killed at least one miner Tuesday and left up to 300 workers trapped underground, a Turkish official said. Twenty people were rescued from the mine in the town of Soma in Manisa province but one later died in the hospital, Soma administrator Mehmet Bahattin Atci told reporters. The town is 250 kilometers (155 miles) south of Istanbul. (AP Photo/Depo Photos)
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